Star Wars: Dreams of Future Past
by mirajanethedemonshipper
Summary: It's been 5 years since the First Order was defeated. Now, a mysterious dark power comes searching for the Chosen One. As Jedi youngling Astrid tries to piece together her encounters with the ghost of Anakin Skywalker, Rey starts a journey to now-abandoned Coruscant to determine the cause of her own strange dreams, while Ben tries to come to terms with his guilt over his past deeds


_Hey guys! This is my first Star Wars fic, which is kinda surprising considering how much I love it! I'm really excited for this story, and I'll try to update as much as I can. I don't think this is going to be a long story, I'd be surprised if it went past ten chapters, but who knows! I hope you enjoy it!_

 _~Ailey_

* * *

The thoughts that had plagued Rey's mind as of late were ceaseless, to the point where they were distracting her from her everyday duties. In the five years since the end of the war, life has not gotten any easier for her. Despite reestablishing the Jedi Order with the help of Ben, there was only the two of them to train the 30 Force-sensitive children that they had found. In addition, Rey was also expected to help Poe, who despite staying true to his promise to General Organa of rebuilding the Republic, was struggling in his new role as Chancellor. And lastly, Rey had to deal with the weeks long periods where Ben would simply withdraw from everything and everyone. While he had come around and stepped back into the light in the end, he still struggled to deal with the immense pain of his role in his parent's death, and the guilt for his actions as Kylo Ren.

Within Rey's dreams, she saw a terrible war fold out every night. She saw fighting spread across hundreds of planets as Jedi clashed against a seemingly endless foe. She saw their numbers thin, and saw the last of them murdered by the very soldiers they fought alongside. She saw a man, a Jedi of incomparable strength, turn against his Order, slaughtering his former allies. And at the end of the dream, she found herself looking through the eyes of that same man as he attacked a woman who pleaded with him to stop the carnage, feeling his terrible hatred when he saw another Jedi from the ship behind the woman.

Rey would wake up from the dreams in a cold sweat, screaming as she lurched out of bed. The first few nights it would wake Poe up, and he tried to calm her down as best he could before going back to bed. After those first few nights, Rey began to sleep in a spare room to let her husband sleep, but as time went on she began sleeping less and less in an attempt to prevent having to see the terrible images she saw in her dreams. The sleep deprivation was beginning to get to her, nearly two weeks after the dreams had begun. She noticed it in her ability to focus, to wield her lightsaber, to make rational decisions, and most of all, when she was teaching the younglings.

"Rey, I know that something is bothering you," Ben told her when she arrived that morning ahead of the youngling's wake-up time. "I can sense it. Why won't you tell me what's wrong?"

The concern in Ben's eyes made Rey hesitate, but she still refused to tell him the truth. "It's really not a big deal, Ben" she said, brushing off his concerned gaze. "I've had so much work to do because of Republic Day that I've barely had time to sleep. I'll be back to normal in a few weeks." Rey didn't want to lie to Ben, but she had no idea what the dreams meant. She didn't know if her visions were warnings from the past or premonitions of the future. With the destruction of the Republic Archives in the Hosnian system by Starkiller Base, and the wiping of First Order databanks in the final battle between the Resistance and the First Order, there was almost no information on life before the days of the Empire. Until she knew exactly what she was seeing, she didn't want to put any unnecessary stress upon Ben. His mind was still fragile with the guilt that weighed heavily on him, and Rey had made it clear that she wanted Ben to focus on making amends and moving on, for the sake of his parents and the Jedi.

"You're lying," Ben sighed, looking at her warily. "We share a bond, Rey. A powerful one. I will find out what's going on sooner or later." He gave her one last look, and turned around and walked down the cavernous hallway towards the rooms where the younglings stayed.

Rey looked back at him, regret in her eyes. She would like nothing more than to share her dreams with Ben, but she could feel the immense strength of the Dark Side from the man in her vision. Rey didn't want to take any chances of Ben being exposed to that kind of power until she was sure that he was mentally ready to deal with it. Sighing, she turned and began walking briskly to the courtyard where she and Ben taught their young students. The temple that they used was an ancient one, one of the few that the Empire didn't destroy. It was discovered when the planet, Corinsua, was being zoned for the new Republic capital. The planet had been largely unpopulated for centuries, which was why Poe chose it for the site of the new Republic capital. He wanted the world to be free of previous political influence, corruption, and problems, and what better place than an uninhabited planet to meet those criteria? The discovery of the Jedi Temple only solidified Poe's belief that Corinsua was where the Republic needed to be based.

As Rey walked to the courtyard, she thought over everything that needed to be done. In two weeks, planets across the galaxy would be celebrating Republic Day, the anniversary of the Rebel Alliance's defeat of the Empire, for the first time since the war ended. It was an incredibly important occasion, as not only were the new Senate building and offices being opened that day, but Rey herself was asked to give a short speech on the progress of the Jedi Order. Her Jedi cloak, a symbol of her status as a Jedi Master, flapped in the wind as she walked, her boots making soft sounds as they hit the floor. She was on auto pilot to the courtyard, her mind preoccupied with the thoughts of dreams and speeches to notice the dark shadow following her.

* * *

Ben hated it when Rey lied. She knew that it was pointless to do so when talking to him because of their Force bond, yet she did it anyways, and it infuriated him. He knew that it wasn't because she didn't trust him, Rey had proven time and time again that she had faith in him. He also knew that she never lied unless she felt it was necessary, which made the question even more interesting; why wasn't she sleeping?

As he mulled over these thoughts, he approached the rooms where the younglings stayed, although 'youngling' probably wasn't the best way to describe them. The youngest was barely five, but the oldest was 17, with the rest varying in between.

Ben pushed the solid door to the large room open and was greeted by the scared faces of the twins, Riko and Skylar. At seven years old, they were more skilled than Ben himself was at controlling the Force at their age. They possessed a powerful Force bond like he and Rey did, something he attributed to the fact that they were twins. "Why are you two already out of bed?" Ben asked, noticing the scared looks they both wore on their faces.

Riko, the shyest of the two, looked at his sister to speak before he did, tugging a tuft of jet black hair over his eyes.

"Master Solo, I sense something…dark. We both do!" Skylar whispered fearfully, her little eyes darting around as if she was afraid someone was listening. "I've never felt anything like this before. It's powerful and dark and scary and—"

Ben sucked in a sharp breath. Now he sensed the dark power that Skylar and Riko were sensing, and he mentally scolded himself for not feeling it beforehand. "Did either of you see or hear anything that would tell you where this power is from?" He asked, placing a hand on each twin's shoulder.

Skylar and Riko glanced at each other, hesitant, before Riko blurted out, "Astrid felt it too! She went looking for whatever was causing it almost 20 minutes ago and she said she'd be right back, but she isn't back yet!" And after his sudden exclamation, the boy began to cry, with barely audible apologies tumbling from his lips.

Ben couldn't believe that Astrid would do something so stupid, although he knew that he shouldn't be surprised. The 17-year-old was powerful, and she had always protected the younger kids and made them feel better when they were afraid, so it didn't surprise the Jedi that she would go and do something like that to make the twins feel better. She probably thought she wouldn't find anything, so she would be able to go back and reassure the children that it was nothing.

Tersely, he instructed the twins to go back into the room, and told them to wake up Gil, a 15-year-old who had a degree of proficiency in creating barriers using the Force, and have him create a barrier around the door. After making sure the door was shut tight behind him, Ben reached out through the Force, feeling for Astrid's power. His eyes flashed open when he felt it, weak and fading, a sharp contrast to its normal fiery brilliance. He began sprinting towards the youngling's general location, drawing his lightsaber in the process. As he ran, he activated his comm link, connecting with Rey's

"Rey, we have a problem," he started, his words coming out heavily as he ran. "The twins felt something dark in the temple, and Astrid went to look for it. I think she's been injured. I doubt who ever is here is still with her so start combing the temple while I find Astrid."

 _"Are you serious? Astrid's been attacked?" Rey's voice exclaimed from the other end of the line, urgency and worry lacing her tone. "How did we not sense their presence until now?"_

"I don't know, but stay on your guard, it might be more than one person,"

 _"I'll find them, no matter what. I'll let you know whe—"_ There was a sudden crashing sound, and the distinct sound of a lightsaber being activated before the line went dead silent, leaving Ben feeling even more panicked as he searched for the injured youngling.

* * *

Astrid knew that it had been a bad idea to go after the dark presence she and the twins had felt. Sure, she could hold her own in a fist fight, and she was definitely above average when it came to her connection to the Force, but she had never had to actually fight another person in a duel before.

Her breath came out in pants, sweat beading her brow as she stared down her enemy, the red lightsaber blade pointed directly at her. Her pale hands felt cold and clammy as she gripped her own purple lightsabers. All she could see of her foe's face was their eyes, tainted yellow by the Dark Side, the rest hidden away by a mask.

Silently and without warning, the attacker went in for another strike. Astrid grunted as she crossed her blades to block the strike, the sheer power behind it making her arms shake with strain. The attacker, knowing that the youngling was too focused on countering the lightsaber, used to Force to slam the girl backward against the wall with a sickening crack.

Astrid's lightsabers tumbled out of her hands, her head growing foggy. She was barely able to keep her eyes open as the attacked saunter up and grabbed her chin, peering into her eyes.

"If you want to live, I suggest you tell me where the Chosen One is, youngling," A feminine voice whispered threateningly. "Otherwise, you will die, and I will set off the thermal charges I placed around the room where the rest of the youngling's sleep. It's your choice."

Astrid looked at her, confusion clouding her mind. The only Chosen One she knew about was the legendary Jedi Knight from before the Empire was in power, but he had been dead for years.

"I have…no idea…what you're talking about…" Astrid managed to whisper, trying to put an air of defiance behind her words.

The attacker's eyes glinted maliciously, and faster than Astrid's mental capacity to keep up, stabbed Astrid in the leg with her crimson lightsaber, eliciting a scream from the girl.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, and then your friends go up in smoke!" The attacker spat out.

All Astrid could do at the point was let out a sob from pain, fear, and regret before she lost consciousness.

* * *

Rey knew something was terribly wrong when she was attacked. While she had been able to dodge the would-be assassin's attack in the nick of time, the red bladed lightsaber nearly put a hole through her heart. Had she not jumped out of the way, she would be dead.

Snarling, Rey drew out her blue-bladed lightsaber. Although her original had been destroyed aboard Snoke's ship in her struggle to claim it from Ben, her current one incorporated similar design and the same kyber crystal that was used in Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.

"Who are you?" Demanded Rey, gripping her lightsaber tightly as she assessed her enemy, who was covered from head to toe in black. The power of the Dark Side rolled off the individual in waves, chilling Rey to her core.

"We are here to snuff out the light," said a gruff, male voice. "We have been tasked with finally destroying the Chosen One."

Without elaborating further, the man charged at Rey with lightning speed, the two sabers clashing together violently. Rey pushed back aggressively, and a speedy, dangerous fight began, the two blades weaving and clashing, the two combatants fighting ferociously with all the strength and power at their disposal.

The high-stakes fight continued for many minutes, until Rey saw an opening. Summoning all her strength, she slammed the assailant backwards with the Force, slamming him against a wall with enough power to crack the stone. The man's head fell limp and his lightsaber rolled out of his hands, knocked out cold from the force of the strike.

Rey lifted her wrist to let Ben know that the situation was handled, but she noticed that it was broken, probably when she was engaged in a death match with her would-be killer. Having no other alternative, Rey sighed, picking up the discarded lightsaber and attaching it to her belt for safe-keeping, before grabbing the back of the man collar and dragging him behind her some ways until she found a small closet that she could lock him in until she returned.

The power of the dark side was strong and grew stronger as Rey sprinted towards the center of the temple. As she ran, she heard footsteps in the hallway parallel to her. Drawing her lightsaber, she swung around the corner, raising her high above her head—

"Wait Rey! Damn it, it's just me!" Ben cried, throwing his hands out and grabbing Rey's wrist. She tensed up, but within a split second relaxed as she realized who she was looking at. Ben removed his hand from her wrist, and she deactivated her lightsaber, stowing it under the dark folds of her Jedi robe.

Rey sighed, "Ben, I'm so sorry. But we have bigger problems—for one, I nearly got murdered five minutes ago and the guy who did it is locked up in a closet. I'd like to find who else is here before he wakes up."

Ben let out a dry laugh, and the two began sprinting towards where Astrid's dwindling aura could be felt.

* * *

Astrid was surrounded by a deep, constraining darkness, darker than any night she had ever witnessed. She felt primal terror rear its ugly head in the back of her mind, but she quashed it with her willpower— _a Jedi must suppress those kinds of emotions, for they could lead to the Dark Side_ , she thought to herself, a tenant of the teachings that she had been taught upon her arrival at the temple when she was 13 years old, at the time the only youngling being taught by the two remaining Jedi. Astrid was many things—impulsive, brash, and easy to anger—but she always knew how to quash those instincts and emotions before they overcame her.

The youngling floated through the darkness for who knows how long before she heard a voice break the solitude that she had been subjected to. Opening her eyes, which had drifted closed as she sank into her thoughts, she made out the figure of a man. However, even she knew that he was not of this world. Wispy and blue, she knew that this was the Force ghost of a Jedi long gone, back from beyond the veil to communicate with her.

 _"I'm sorry for my sudden appearance, but we don't have much time,"_ The ghost started, pulling down the hood that covered his face to reveal a young, handsome man, less than ten years older than Astrid. His wavy brown hair moved gently, as if a wind was tousling it, and his brown eyes reflected kindness alongside strength, with a little bit of impulsivity not unlike her own.

"Wh-who are you?" Astrid asked, surprised by the man's sudden appearance.

The Jedi looked down at his boots, guilt and shame clouding his powerful eyes. "I am—well, I was a Jedi. But I made a mistake. When I was your age, and even younger, people called me the Chosen One. They thought I would defeat the Jedi's greatest enemy, the Sith, and bring balance to the Force, but I failed them." His eyes were glazed over, as if he was seeing a different time, looking into his painful past. "I fell to the Dark Side and slaughtered my friends, my allies, the Order that had taken me in and raised me from a young age, and worst of all, my own wife."

Astrid sucked in a breath. While little was known about the Jedi Order before the Empire, even she knew that it had been forbidden for Jedi to marry, or have any attachments to anyone, because it was feared that those connections would lead to the Dark Side. She said nothing, and allowed the Jedi to continue.

"I became everything that I had originally fought against, and for nearly 20 years, I killed and destroyed in the name of the Sith, destroying everything the Jedi had built over the thousands of years that they existed. But in the end, I was redeemed by my son, Luke, whom my wife had given birth to along with his sister right before she died."

Astrid's eyes widened, shocked at this revelation. "You're Luke Skywalker's father?" she asked, disbelief laced in her voice.

"Yes," the Jedi said, his tone bittersweet. "My name is Anakin Skywalker." The pained look in his eyes were replaced by a look of steely determination, and he looked at me with the eyes of a warrior that had seen countless battles, and even more deaths. "I need you to listen to every word that I say, because the fate of the Jedi, and the rest of the galaxy depends on it."

He took a deep breath, and began to talk again. "While my body died, and I am communicating with you through the Force, that doesn't mean that my spirit died." Astrid looked at him, confusion evident on her face, and Anakin elaborated. "Rather, my spirit—my power, abilities, traits, and general personality—were passed on. In other words, I was reincarnated into another person who lacks my memories but still has my defining characteristics."

"The person that attacked you was a member of a Sith offshoot that was inspired by the Sith Empires from thousands of years ago, not limited to only two people like the modern day Sith. Somehow, they have discovered that I have been reincarnated and they are determined to kill my reincarnation before they realize who they are. However, they haven't figured out the identity of the reincarnation yet, which is where you come in."

Astrid stared at him quizzically, unsure of how to react to such a large data dump, but she nodded at him to continue.

"Your master, Rey, is incredibly powerful with the Force, as is my grandson, Ben. However, when you wake up, you must only tell Rey of what I have told you. Tell her that she must go to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and find a Jedi relic called the Mirror of Truth. It is a mirror that reflects whatever the user asks it to show through the Force. And you must also be sure that Ben does not find out about what she is doing until she discovers the identity of my reincarnation."

Astrid finally spoke up, a million questions at the tip of her tongue. "Why are you asking me to do this? Why not appear to Rey directly? Why—"

"We don't have much time," Anakin said hurriedly. "I can feel my ghost being pulled away. I came to you because you are special. You have a special power that not many who are gifted with the Force possess, and I feel that your ability will be required in the battle that is coming soon."

Astrid huffed, as now she had more questions than she did before, but before she could ask another one, Anakin's ghost faded into the darkness, leaving no trace of the legendary Jedi Knight.

* * *

 _I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I know that it's not the best, but it's been awhile since I've written, well, anything, so please cut me some slack. I'm going to do my best to make my writing quality better! Please leave your constructive criticisms below, and let me know if you liked it! Thanks!_

 _~Ailey_


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